So many pictures. There are more coming up later. I'm trying to cram a lot of stuff into one post today.

I'll answer the questions for the Booker Award since that's the one that doesn't involve writing 7 things about myself, and call me a bad blogger buddy, but I just can't muster up the energy to forward these to 7 people. So people out there, I'm sending good vibes, but no awards (most of you probably have them already anyway, and if you don't, feel free to help yourself to one. Or five.)

So with the Book Award I just have to list my 5 favorite reads:

1. Charlotte's Web-Quick story about this book: I got it before I understood the concept of chapters so the first time I read it I thought each chapter was a separate story. I read the whole thing out of order. I also learned the phrase "Magnum Opus" from this book, and as much as I would love to use it in everyday conversation, I never get the chance to.

2. American Gods

3. It

4. Let the Right One In

5. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Second item of business: Upcoming Blog Fests. I've signed up for two starting in August. Well one starts on July 30th, but close enough. Click the links above the pics for details.

With the What If? blogfest you're supposed to choose a team to write for, but I can't decide whether to go with Team Comedy or Team Plot Twist. I'm never intentionally funny, and my plot twists are usually in they vein of "mundane, mundane, mundane---And then his head was ripped off by a giant spider!" Maybe I can squeeze in a comedic plot twist. The spider tells jokes while he noms on heads.

Anyway, Sunday will be my final installment of The Warehouse, and Wednesday will be the next Insecure Writer's Support Group. Plus I have to start writing for the blog fests and I'm still about 5,000 words short of my 70,000 word novel (which will probably be the subject of the IWSG post). So see you in a few days.

Welcome back to Achievements/Goals. I missed several postings, because my laptop crapped out on me. I had been making it work for almost a year after my 90 pound dog jumped on it, breaking a hinge, and cracking the bevel around the screen; but every time I moved the stupid thing the the lid moved a little, eventually causing chunks of plastic to break off and about a third of the screen to go black. When faced with the decision of whether to repair it or replace it, I went the repair route which took three weeks.

Hey, did you know that Toshiba no longer makes computers? Well, I didn't until I went to get mine fixed. Apparently, replacement parts have to be hand delivered from Japan, because that's how long it felt like I was sans laptop.

Hey, do you know how much it costs to replace basically the entire lid of a Toshiba laptop? Neither did I until I had to choke back the tears as I handed my credit card to the Geek Squad guy.

Good Evening. I missed some time, yes. I got busy with life, but I hope to be back on track. Without further ado, here's what has happened over the past couple of weeks:

Achievements I've been slowly working my way through Camp NaNoWriMo this month. I fell of the wagon pretty hard after four days, but with my low word count goal, it has been fairly easy to make up the lost time. I think I'll be able to finish within goal.I did a reading at my writing group two weeks ago. I got positive comments all around, which surprised me, because I was pretty sure that the best thing I could bring to the table was mediocre. I'm still not ready to accept positive feedback. That's the weirdest thing with me. I will absolutely accept criticism without fail, but give me a compliment, and I'm sure you're "just being nice."GoalsPretty much the same as they have been. I'm trying to just get myself on a baseline of competence before trying anything new.Continue to …